Tag Archive | trust

And if our God be for us, then who can ever stop us? Surprisingly the answer is us. We stop ourselves. Here is what we know based on what the Bible tells us: (1) 2 Corinthians 5:17 – Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Our past is simply our past. EVERYBODY has one. In fact when we come to Christ God uses our past to help others to come into the knowledge of Him. Our past should not dictate our future, it should be our stepping stones to a greater future.

(2) Hebrews 4:16 – Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.- We can go boldly to our Father in our time of need. How many of you remember as a kid how you went boldly to your parents for whatever you needed. It’s the same thing with God we can go to Him not cowering in fear or in anticipation of rejection. He loves us and it is His good pleasure to show up and show out for us.

(3) Philippians 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. There is absolutely NOTHING that we cannot do. What would happen if we stopped living in fear and started living in faith? God gives us power to do all things so that He will be glorified!!

(4) Philippians 4:19 – But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.- Whatever it is that you are supposed to be doing, God will make the provision to you to carry it out. I have often heard it said God will make provision for the vision.

(5) 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. – There is a very good reason that you have never fit in with the “in-crowd”. There is a reason that you felt odd-ballish most of your life. You were too busy trying to put a square peg into a round hole.

God makes provision for the things He has called us to do. We cannot be stopped. We cannot be denied. We cannot be pushed aside. If our God be for us, then who can be against us. Now get out there and let your light shine!!

Daily Reading: Psalm 27:13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

Most us of start the new year off, all pursuing the same thing. We want to be bet-ter. Whether we pledge to lose weight, get our finances on track, or choose better relationships, we all start off with a goal in mind. The ultimate goal is to make changes so that we can live better lives. Initially we go to the gym, plunk down that money for a membership, and we are faithful at first. We either get up early in the morning to get our workout completed, or we make time in the evening to get there and get that workout finished. We begin to be more conscious about what we are eating, some of us can and will track points, and others will keep food diaries. We all become more conscious about what we are doing and how we are doing it to achieve our ultimate goal. How-ever, somewhere along the way, we lose focus. Perhaps the weight is not coming off fast enough or perhaps we continue going to the same places, thereby meeting the same old people, whatever happens or however it happens, we somehow lose our focus. Once we lose our focus, our goal is no longer clear, it begins to get fuzzy; once it gets fuzzy, it becomes easy to forget what we were looking at in the first place. Our vision has become blurry, so we can no longer focus on the big picture, which was to become healthier, to choose better relationships and so on.

Do you not know that it is the same way in the spiritual realm? At the beginning of the year, most of us also decide to walk a little closer with God. But as soon as things begin to happen, the boss wants us to work overtime, we get busy with the kids, we start snoozing our clocks in the morning, and slowly we lose our focus. Suddenly getting closer to God is just not that important anymore because we have gotten busy. Losing our spiritual focus is much more dangerous than losing our physical focus. We lose our spiritual focus and we lose our soul. We only go around this one time and once it is over, it is over. We have to remain focused on the fact that this world is not our home. We have to remain focused, so that no matter the test, trial or storm, God is with us. Do not lose focus.

Prayer of Praise: Lord, help me to remain focused on You and the plans that You have for my life. It is so easy to get distracted and disillusioned in my daily walk, but help me to hold on and remain steadfast. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Thought for today: Today I will remain focused on the promises of God.

What Faith Can Do ~ Faith say’s to us we’re suffering, but not stopped

Daily Reading: Luke 8:48 And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.

The book of Acts is an amazing testament to the power of the Holy Ghost. It is also an amazing testament and example of suffering that the disciples experienced while spreading the gospel. Why is it that we think that by coming to Christ, our days of suffering are over? Why it that we are somehow convinced that now, since we have joined team Jesus, that He (Jesus) did all the suffering for us while on the cross? When we come to God, we are telling the devil, “I no longer belong to you”, which means he (the devil) is going to do anything to get you back, and the devil always means business. The devil is going to use your co-workers to try to get you to cuss and act a fool. The devil is going to make the smoke break area seem so attractive (After all, that’s where all your work friends hang out at). The devil is going to have the teachers at school messing with your children. The devil is going to at-tack your finances. The devil is going to cause someone to want to fight you. Every-thing that he does will be an attempt to essentially put out your light for Christ. Do not let the suffering stop you. Consider the disciples in the book of Acts; they were stripped, beaten, imprisoned, locked in dungeons, faced mobs, but they did not let that prohibit them from preaching the gospel. The suffering at the cross did not stop Jesus. The Word of God cannot be stopped, nor will it be stopped because we didn’t hold up our end of the blood-stained banner; it just means it may be delayed. So when your suffering time comes, don’t let it stop the light of God from shining through. Don’t let it stop the Gospel from being spread!!

Prayer of Praise: Lord, thank You for all that You’ve done and for all that You are. It is because of Your redemptive work on the cross that we are all able to endure our suffering and hardness as good soldiers.

Thought for the Day: I may be suffering, but I am certainly not stopped!

We have heard time and time again that God is the great I AM. Regrettably for a lot of people they still do not know what it means. Some do not understand the power and the impact of God telling Moses I Am that I Am, nor do they know what it translates to in their own lives.

The John Gill exposition explains it like this, “This signifies the real being of God, his self-existence, and that he is the Being of beings; as also it denotes his eternity and immutability, and his constancy and faithfulness in fulfilling his promises, for it includes all time, past, present, and to come; and the sense is, not only I am what I am at present, but I am what I have been, and I am what I shall be, and shall be what I am.”

God is all eternal, all knowing, He has no ending and no beginning. He wasn’t raised up, so no man can pull Him down. He wasn’t born, so no man can kill Him. He was elected, nor appointed and therefore cannot be impeached. It was nothing before Him and there can be nothing after Him.

God was telling Moses, I Am everything you and the people of Israel need. It is the same thing He tells us. When we need a deliverer, He is the deliverer. When we need a friend, He is our confidant. When we need a teacher, He is the teacher. When we are in the court room, He is our lawyer. When we are in trouble, He is our life raft. When we are heavy laden, He is the burden bearer. He is the great I AM. In other words there is an empty line behind it just for YOU to fill in I AM _______________________.

God will be everything you need Him to be, just as he was with the Israelites.

The power and impact of knowing who God is, helps us to walk in real deliverance. When we know Who He is, it is because we know what He can do. We can remember how He has brought us out of this and of that. We can look back and see that He has never failed us and He never will. God is the great I am that I am.

Daily Reflection: 1 Samuel 16:1 ( NIV) The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.

While reading 1 Samuel: 16 which is the chapter in which Samuel anoints David. David was not the pick of the litter in the eyes of man. In fact he was an afterthought. David was out in the field watching the sheep and the goats (v.11). Then the thought occurred that David was actually in the place of PREPARATION. The things that he learned in the place of Preparation prepared him for his first public victory when he defeated Goliath (Chapter 17). We have no idea of all the things that he experienced in his place of preparation, but one thing is certain. He learned to be a defender. Consider the sheep and the goat (which could very well represent both the saved and unsaved) and how David (the shepherd) defended and protected because they were in his care. Imagine the nights he did not sleep because he was watching over the flock. What about the nights that were filled with strange sounds. He learned to not be spooked by everything thing that he heard (We would do well to learn this lesson). How many wild animals did he have to fight off with a rock, staff and a rag? His place of preparation could not have been easy. But neither is ours. Some of us are in a place of preparation. Learn everything you can at this juncture. You will need everything that you’ve learned, not just to get the victory. It will be important so you can keep the victory.

The second thing that stuck out was that all of Jessie’s other sons were tall and good looking. Perhaps David had not come into long legs or a great appearance at that time. But he had something else more important, He had God’s favor. So many times we judge a book by its cover, but God is not looking at outward appearances. He is looking at our heart. We would be much better off if we looked at the heart of people instead of their appearance. Matthew 12:34 as well as Luke 6:45 reminds us out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. In other words whatever is in someone heart will eventually come out of their mouth? So, if want to know how someone really feels about you. Listen for it. No it will not come out straight forward, it will probably be a little slick, veiled lightly under humor or under a just kidding.

Finally we see at end of the chapter that David winds up in the king’s palace as his armor bearer and musician. God would send a tormenting spirit to Saul and poor David would have to play it away. The very person that God sent you to minister to could very well wind up hating you. I am not saying that they will, but it could happen. David’s time in preparation prepared him to deal with anything that was thrown his way. Our place of preparation does the same for us. David became Saul’s replacement because he chose to be disobedient to God. David chose to submit and was rewarded.

Daily Reflection: Romans 4:21 And being fully persuaded that, what he has promised, he is able to perform

Have you ever been thoroughly convinced about something? Consider for a moment the basic act of sitting in a chair. When we grab a chair, pull it out and prepare to sit in it: the thought never crosses our mind that the chair cannot hold us, it never occurs to us that the chair cannot bear our weight. We never consider these things because of our history with the chair it has never failed us before.

How about our relationship with God? Have we been fully convinced that God is able to do exactly whatever he says he will do? Do we fully believe, rely upon, and trust his every word? Has God ever promised us anything that he has not done? The devil comes to kill, steal and destroy, he wants to kill out our dreams and hopes for the future, he wants to steal every promise that God has made to us, he wants to destroy any and all faith that we have in God. Yet we have a history with God. Based upon that proven history, we can be fully persuaded. Fully persuaded that God loves us, fully persuaded that God is able to bring to fruition anything in which he speaks. Fully persuaded that he is a healer, fully persuaded that he is a deliverer, fully persuaded that he is a mind regulator, fully persuaded that he is our provider, fully persuaded that he is the bishop and captain of our souls, fully persuaded that there is nothing going on in our lives that he does not know about and care about. God wants us to trust Him with every single area of our lives. There is nothing ever going to happen to us for us or through us that he is does not know about. He already has a purpose and a plan for our lives and they go much smoother when we become fully persuaded.

Prayer of thanks: Lord thank you for the opportunity to be drawn closer to you. Lord help me to become fully persuaded of your presence while in the middle of my storm. Lord I look to you for guidance, wisdom and understanding that I may keep my light shining for others. In Jesus name. Amen.

Thought for today: Write down at least three of the instances that God has proven himself in your life. Keep them near you as a reminder of the faithfulness of God. ~ Let your light shine!

Daily Reflection: Luke 5: 18-20 18 And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy: and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before him.19 And when they could not find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude, they went upon the housetop, and let him down through the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus.20 And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee.

The girl hip-hip and r&b group TLC once sang a song “What About Your Friends?” In it they were asking about the quality of the friends that you hang around. The song was really popular because it required the listener to examine the types of friendship that they have. And to also get rid of the people that were not in their corner.

In the above passage we see a man that is sick with palsy. The text does not tell us how long he has been sick. The passage neither mentions if the sick man lived with his friends or how many friends he had. It just tells us that they were so serious that they were willing to climb atop someone’s home and tear the roof off the place. It also reveals to us a little about the friendship relationship of the group.

To be totally transparent I know (or at least I think I know) that I have one or two people that are willing to fight for me and with me. (I do not mean physical fight, but they may). I do think that I have one or two willing to get into the heat of the spiritual battle. All you really need is a few. I know that there are several women that I am friends with that I would tear a roof off for them. But enough about me. What about you? What about your friends? Will they tear the roof off a house to help you get a touch from God? If a roof was the only thing that stood in between your complete and total healing and sickness. Would they, or could they tear the roof off the mother? I just dropped by here to ask you … What about your friends? Are they going to turn around, are they going to let you down, will they turn their backs on you?

Every now and then we have to take a long hard look at the folks that are with us. Everyone that is with us, is not for us. We have to realize that just because someone smiles in our face does not mean they have our best interest at heart. We have to understand agendas, plans and outlines of others may be dreadfully different from ours. Once we know that, then we can know what and how much to invest in the relationship. You and I need people that are willing to tear the roof off for us to get our healing.

Prayer of Thanks: Lord thank you for this day and for this opportunity to examine who I have allowed to walk so closely with me. Lord help me to make good choices in the people that I have chosen to bear my soul to in Jesus name. Amen.